What is a spiritual exercise and why do we need it?

Take a moment to consider why you exercise – or why you think you should exercise…

Most of us will have different reasons to have a regular exercise practice, but generally speaking, it’s down the line of keeping our body healthy, in good shape and stronger. When we physically exercise, we work our muscles against gravity. We repeat exercises to build muscle mass and it’s not easy; we sweat, we have to push through, we have to repeat it again and again to see results. By exercising, we build a body that will allow us to move with more ease.

A spiritual exercise is exactly the same but instead, we train our mind to work against emotional gravity such as anger, cynicism, depression, laziness, judgment etc… All of those ways of thinking are present in our brain, making our mind feel heavy, slow and quick to respond to drama. If we don’t move our physical body, it will feel heavy, slow and it will be most likely to catch all sorts of illnesses. The same goes for our mind.

What are the results of a daily spiritual practice?

You will gain the power to be still, to be fully present, to be detached and non-reactive. Instead of jumping to conclusions when someone say something, instead of saying something stupid too quickly without thinking first, instead of having outburst of anger coming out of nowhere or deep feelings of sadness lingering; you will be able to observe all of that happening and not get swollen into the drama. The power that comes for exercising your mind with daily spiritual practices has ripple effects in all areas of your life.

Both your physical and your spiritual practice are equally important to live a life based on love, joy, inner power and confidence.

How often do we have to do our spiritual exercises?

Daily!

As bringing movement every day for our physical body to stay healthy and strong, a little bit of spiritual exercise every day is better than a lot once a week. Regularity and consistency are the keys.

If we find it difficult, it’s completely normal!

Lets’ think about this: if we haven’t exercised in a while, when we start running or practising yoga again, we soooo feel it… Our body won’t be very responsive, we feel heavy, uncoordinated and weak. Imagine you have never – ever- exercise in your entire life before… It’s even more difficult to start and stay consistent isn’t?

But if we keep going, day after day, week after week, we quickly start seeing and feeling the results. We have pushed through the yucky first physical and mental challenges, committing to do something good for our body, and it has paid off by bringing more ease and confidence! We feel stronger, lighter, healthier and happier!

So it is the same with any spiritual exercise…

Try to start meditation: “It’s so easy, I sat there in silence for an hour reaching pure bliss and it was my first time meditating” – said no one, ever!!!

Off course it’s difficult when we first start, off course we feel discouraged. But what’s important, is to understand that it is normal to feel this way, that we have to start somewhere and keep practising, the results will come, it’s just a matter of time.

If you want to run a marathon, you won’t go to the event unless you have trained for a while, building your stamina, your muscles, training your lungs, your heart and your mind to do it. No one is crazy enough to try to run a marathon without having done the proper training.

So why don’t we chill out in terms of results?

We can embrace the daily spiritual exercises as a goal in themselves, as a door to a new world of opportunities where magic truly happens.

What spiritual exercises can we start with?

I would personally recommend walking in silence everyday in nature, letting all thoughts go, trying not to hold onto them. Imagine they are like clouds in the sky, you watch them come and you watch them go.

After a couple of weeks, start meditation practises. Sit in silence every day for at least 5 min, then start increasing the time. There is no other goal than that in itself ok?!

Then, to get deeper and deeper, learn from others, follow teachers and speakers out there that will inspire you and teach you more spiritual exercises.

For example, Marianne Williamson, which this article has been inspired by. Find her on her website or on FB.

You can as well follow my ‘Mini-spiritual coaching series’ on FB. It’s FREE and it’s weekly. You have to register to my newsletter for that. Every week, you will receive a 5 min video, a written extract of the video content, a spiritual exercise, a powerful prayer and an inspiring quote. On top of that, you can join my weekly FB lives on Wednesdays to go deeper in the theme and to ask me direct questions if you wish to do so. Join me… a spiritual exercising group is way more fun than doing everything by yourself! And you can meet other cool people doing the same thing, which is always a plus!